Focus on my good or bad subjects?

brian93

Ok, I need some advice!

I need at least 500 in my leaving. I'm doing 8 HL subjects, Irish, Geography, Biology, German, Maths, Chemistry, Music and English.

I'm confident I can get an A1 in Irish , some sort of A in Biology and Geography, hopefully an A or high B in German and a B in Maths.

Then there is Chemistry, English and Music. Not so confident about those, probably 3 C's. I'm starting to worry and stress about those subjects and I'm trying to catch up and do well. But I feel I'm ignoring my other subjects.

Basically, in my situation, do you think it would be better to concentrate on my good 5 and get 5 good results and scrape a C in the one of the other 3, or try and improve the weaker 3 subjects? I badly need some advice! Thanks in advance Every reply will help!

LilMissCiara

brian93 wrote: »

Ok, I need some advice!

I need at least 500 in my leaving. I'm doing 8 HL subjects, Irish, Geography, Biology, German, Maths, Chemistry, Music and English.

I'm confident I can get an A1 in Irish , some sort of A in Biology and Geography, hopefully an A or high B in German and a B in Maths.

Then there is Chemistry, English and Music. Not so confident about those, probably 3 C's. I'm starting to worry and stress about those subjects and I'm trying to catch up and do well. But I feel I'm ignoring my other subjects.

Basically, in my situation, do you think it would be better to concentrate on my good 5 and get 5 good results and scrape a C in the one of the other 3, or try and improve the weaker 3 subjects? I badly need some advice! Thanks in advance Every reply will help!

I would cover the 5 good ones really well, the easier of the worst 3 to a mid-C standard and make sure I know enough to pass the last 2.

coldwood92

I would focus on your bad subjects

titanium feather

brian93 wrote: »

Ok, I need some advice!

I need at least 500 in my leaving. I'm doing 8 HL subjects, Irish, Geography, Biology, German, Maths, Chemistry, Music and English.

I'm confident I can get an A1 in Irish , some sort of A in Biology and Geography, hopefully an A or high B in German and a B in Maths.

Then there is Chemistry, English and Music. Not so confident about those, probably 3 C's. I'm starting to worry and stress about those subjects and I'm trying to catch up and do well. But I feel I'm ignoring my other subjects.

Basically, in my situation, do you think it would be better to concentrate on my good 5 and get 5 good results and scrape a C in the one of the other 3, or try and improve the weaker 3 subjects? I badly need some advice! Thanks in advance Every reply will help!

How did your Music practical go for you? And it's a few years since I did the LC - is the practical still worth 50%?

If I were you, at this stage, I would forget about either Chemistry or Music altogether. (Not English, because a HL C grade or higher in English looks good on a CV.) Having studied both Chemistry and Music myself, in my opinion, Chemistry is a lot tougher to do well in and will probably take up more time. However if the Music practical didn't go well and if you don't have a strong background in Music, you should forget about this and work on the Chemistry.

When I say to forget about it - you should still do the exam, but be of the mindset from now that you're not going to be using it for points. However you may surprise yourself and get lucky on the day! And if you don't - even if you fail it (which is unlikely if you've at least been attending classes the last two years) - you can just forget about it and leave that result of your CVs in future. Having done eight subjects instead of seven will make no difference from an employment point of view!

At this stage, you know the material for each subject quite well, and you'll have a fair idea of your own abilities. Rather than dividing your time equally between all subjects, sit down for an hour and make an assessment of just how much difference more time spent studying is likely to make to your final grade. E.g. you're probably naturally quite strong at Irish and German and there isn't a massive amount of theory in these subjects, so your time would probably be better spent on Biology, Geography, or one of your weaker subjects. I wouldn't spend a massive amount of time on English - it's one you're very unlikely to fail - but keep up to date with it at the same time.

So if I were you, based on what you said in your post, I'd probably roughly split out my time as follows (I'm assuming here that you're going to focus on Chemistry rather than Music, but that's your own decision):

Irish --- Aim for an A1 --- 100 points --- 10% of your remaining study time
Geography --- Aim for an A2 --- 90 points --- 20%
Biology --- Aim for an A2 --- 90 points --- 20%
German --- Aim for a B2 --- 80 points --- 10%
Maths --- Aim for a B2 --- 80 points --- 15%
Chemistry --- Aim for a C1 --- 70 points --- 20%
Music --- Not focussing on --- 0 points --- 0%
English --- Aim for a C3 --- 0 points --- 5%

That gives you 510 points, and actually, I'm being conservative with the expected grades.

Then make a timetable, a realistic one, of how many hours you have to study between now and the first exam. And divide the number of hours per subject according to the percentages you work out.

Then you can just concentrate on what your timetable says you should be studying, and you won't need to worry that you're neglecting other areas.

It's all well and good earlier on in the year structuring your study so that you focus on each subject equally. But at this stage, you need to get smart about your study, and have a strategy. For example, if you're confident of getting an A1 in Irish without a huge amount of work, there's no point spending hours studying in the hope of bringing your % from low 90s to high 90s - whereas the same amount of time could possibly bring you from a low C to a low B in Chemistry.

By the way, if you are a native English speaker and have attended classes all year and done your homework as you went along, you should definitely be able to get a C in English with minimal effort.

Anyways that would just be my own approach to it! Best of luck with the study and exams.

What are you hoping to study in college, as a matter of interest?

SDTimeout

Music can become a good subject very quickly if you had a good practical. Focus on Melody writing and Harmonys and pick two set works to cover in detail for a 25 marker.

Good luck.

brian93

titanium feather wrote: »

How did your Music practical go for you? And it's a few years since I did the LC - is the practical still worth 50%?

If I were you, at this stage, I would forget about either Chemistry or Music altogether. (Not English, because a HL C grade or higher in English looks good on a CV.) Having studied both Chemistry and Music myself, in my opinion, Chemistry is a lot tougher to do well in and will probably take up more time. However if the Music practical didn't go well and if you don't have a strong background in Music, you should forget about this and work on the Chemistry.

When I say to forget about it - you should still do the exam, but be of the mindset from now that you're not going to be using it for points. However you may surprise yourself and get lucky on the day! And if you don't - even if you fail it (which is unlikely if you've at least been attending classes the last two years) - you can just forget about it and leave that result of your CVs in future. Having done eight subjects instead of seven will make no difference from an employment point of view!

At this stage, you know the material for each subject quite well, and you'll have a fair idea of your own abilities. Rather than dividing your time equally between all subjects, sit down for an hour and make an assessment of just how much difference more time spent studying is likely to make to your final grade. E.g. you're probably naturally quite strong at Irish and German and there isn't a massive amount of theory in these subjects, so your time would probably be better spent on Biology, Geography, or one of your weaker subjects. I wouldn't spend a massive amount of time on English - it's one you're very unlikely to fail - but keep up to date with it at the same time.

So if I were you, based on what you said in your post, I'd probably roughly split out my time as follows (I'm assuming here that you're going to focus on Chemistry rather than Music, but that's your own decision):

Irish --- Aim for an A1 --- 100 points --- 10% of your remaining study time
Geography --- Aim for an A2 --- 90 points --- 20%
Biology --- Aim for an A2 --- 90 points --- 20%
German --- Aim for a B2 --- 80 points --- 10%
Maths --- Aim for a B2 --- 80 points --- 15%
Chemistry --- Aim for a C1 --- 70 points --- 20%
Music --- Not focussing on --- 0 points --- 0%
English --- Aim for a C3 --- 0 points --- 5%

That gives you 510 points, and actually, I'm being conservative with the expected grades.

Then make a timetable, a realistic one, of how many hours you have to study between now and the first exam. And divide the number of hours per subject according to the percentages you work out.

Then you can just concentrate on what your timetable says you should be studying, and you won't need to worry that you're neglecting other areas.

It's all well and good earlier on in the year structuring your study so that you focus on each subject equally. But at this stage, you need to get smart about your study, and have a strategy. For example, if you're confident of getting an A1 in Irish without a huge amount of work, there's no point spending hours studying in the hope of bringing your % from low 90s to high 90s - whereas the same amount of time could possibly bring you from a low C to a low B in Chemistry.

By the way, if you are a native English speaker and have attended classes all year and done your homework as you went along, you should definitely be able to get a C in English with minimal effort.

Anyways that would just be my own approach to it! Best of luck with the study and exams.

What are you hoping to study in college, as a matter of interest?

You absolute hero. I didn't think I could get such an awesome answer! And thanks to the others too Every opinion matters!

As for the practical it went good. My sight clapping was perfect, my perfomance was ok. I played 6 trad pieces with no accompanient, tbh it's hard to know how i got on, since I have no idea how people generally get on. And yeah, tis still 50%

I did about 15% better in my Chemistry mock, but the teacher was giving me marks for everything. We had a teacher with no Irish trying to teach it to us through Irish for all of 5th year. Wasn't much of a success! And nobody got less then a C in the mocks. But I do have the added bonus of the 10% extra Irish mark in chem. I have it in music too, but 10% of 100 marks (music listening) is much less then 10% of 400 marks (chem). I find it very hard to study Chemistry though. As for music, coming from a traditional background I find the Set works quite hard, but I've done loads of work on Melodies and Harmonies so I'm pretty good at those, and at Irish music too.

Thanks for the timetable advice and all! Great advice, badly needed! Well I'm planning on doing Science Education in Maynooth, the course is slightly less then 500, but coming from Kerry, which is a loooong way away, I'd like to be guaranteed campus acc, and the €1,000 which comes with 500+ points! And you may think I'm crazy doing Chemistry again next year, but with a 25% continuous assesment mark, and basically the LC course I'm not too worried, and JC Chemistry is fine. Want to qualifiy as a Maths and Biology teacher!

titanium feather

brian93 wrote: »

You absolute hero. I didn't think I could get such an awesome answer! And thanks to the others too Every opinion matters!

As for the practical it went good. My sight clapping was perfect, my perfomance was ok. I played 6 trad pieces with no accompanient, tbh it's hard to know how i got on, since I have no idea how people generally get on. And yeah, tis still 50%

I did about 15% better in my Chemistry mock, but the teacher was giving me marks for everything. We had a teacher with no Irish trying to teach it to us through Irish for all of 5th year. Wasn't much of a success! And nobody got less then a C in the mocks. But I do have the added bonus of the 10% extra Irish mark in chem. I have it in music too, but 10% of 100 marks (music listening) is much less then 10% of 400 marks (chem). I find it very hard to study Chemistry though. As for music, coming from a traditional background I find the Set works quite hard, but I've done loads of work on Melodies and Harmonies so I'm pretty good at those, and at Irish music too.

Thanks for the timetable advice and all! Great advice, badly needed! Well I'm planning on doing Science Education in Maynooth, the course is slightly less then 500, but coming from Kerry, which is a loooong way away, I'd like to be guaranteed campus acc, and the €1,000 which comes with 500+ points! And you may think I'm crazy doing Chemistry again next year, but with a 25% continuous assesment mark, and basically the LC course I'm not too worried, and JC Chemistry is fine. Want to qualifiy as a Maths and Biology teacher!

Aww shucks! Glad to be of assistance lol!

Yeah if the six pieces you did for the Music practical were of a sufficient standard (as regards difficulty) and if you feel yourself it went well on the day, you're on 40-45% already. That might even be being conservative - I checked my paper for Music, and I got the full 50% for the practical, and I know I would've made some small mistakes. Then again we might have just had a soft examiner! But think of it this way - if you were to sit the final music exam tomorrow, based on what you know already, I think it's fair to say you'd at least yet half marks? So that's (we'll say) 40% for the practical, plus 25% for the final paper, and you're on 65% already even before you add on the marks for doing it in Irish. With a bit of work you could very, very easily bring that up to a B.

However, I will say, if you do end up deciding to focus on Music and not Chemistry, it's very unlikely that you'd end up fluking a high grade in Chemistry on the day without studying (whereas it would be very possible with Music.) Still though, as you said, it's given you the background in Chemistry that you'll need for college. Just make sure that a minimum grade in Chemistry (or two Science subjects or whatever) isn't an entry requirement.

Where I broke it down above, I recommended 20% of your time to bring up your grade in Chemistry - I reckon you definitely could reduce that to 10%-15% for Music to bring up your final grade by an equivalent amount, and use the extra time elsewhere.

This is the method that I've used coming up to exams for years now, it hasn't failed me yet thankfully!

irish_man

Well all i have to say is that A1s make a huge difference to the points tally. I'd stick to the good ones and hope for an A1. I know of people with one or 2 Cs and still got over the 500.

If you get 3 A1s you will need 200 points from three other subjects and thats 1 C1 and 2 C2s.

If you got 3 A2s you will need 230 points from the three other subjects and thats 1 B2 and 2 B3s. So I think getting the A1 in your best subjects is crucial.

higgz

If you get say 50% in an exam you get 55 points - a bonus of 5 points vs %

However if you can get 90%, then you get 100 points - a bonus of 10 points.

A1s are worth the push!